I,ve talked to some locals and one professional and was given some great tips.Have paid quite a bit already for this vacation and bank is almost broke. Nice to get some friendly advice for some simple shore fishing. I would like to thank everyone for their help.
Keep ideas coming for others shore anglers.
I will post my fishing experiences for others this upcoming week.
Also found a really great tackle shop behind the cinema in Oranjestead. Good selection and good pricing.The woman running it is great ,just can't remember her name.

The Spanish lagoon has been not bad and ocean front by Saventa is good. No bones yet but some other weird fish. Nice to Wade out early morning and late evening. Still getting the hang of surf fishing. Nothing like home where you can catch tons of walleye and rainbow trout from shore.
Going to baby and Rogers today. Nice flats for me and beachs for the wife.
Been to many many places over the last 20 years and would say Aruba is thr best so far. Not for fishing sad to say. That would be Belize.

glad to hear that aruba is "the best so far" and sorry tho hear that the fishing is not what you had hoped for. i know you are talking about shorefishing, but many others have a great time and much success fishing from a boat.

pardon my ignorance, when you shorefish there is it for food? do you keep and cook the fish or toss them back in? i know that eating bonefish is a no no, but have you gotten any barracuda?

When i vacation everything is released, always. At home I keep supper once and a while othewise catch and release.

But I do buy shrimp and fish from the local fish shops here. I support the locals,just not the larger companies like big fishing charters. They are over priced and sometimes end up with issues like I read on here recently.

what kind of issues are you speaking of?
my husband just bought some fishing gear and is doing a little catch and release fishing here in one of the many ponds of our community in the tampa bay area. he is thinking he'd like to try it at the crack of dawn in aruba and has plans to go out with the www.flyfishingaruba.com next time we are there.

Originally Posted by moose

But I do buy shrimp and fish from the local fish shops here. I support the locals,just not the larger companies like big fishing charters. They are over priced and sometimes end up with issues like I read on here recently.

My wife and I visited Aruba two years ago and fell in love! We're now in the process of purchasing a timeshare and will be visiting much more often. In fact, we'll be there 6 May - 13 May this year.

I am an avid fisherman and eagerly read many of the threads on the forum regarding fishing. During our last trip, my wife and I fished on the Melina and had a great time (of course she caught a big mahi and I caught a little, teeny cuda), we fished with an inshore guide (very poor trip, unprofessional, huge waste of time and money), and fished many places from shore (Malmok area, Governor's house, Spanish Lagoon).

This year, we plan on fishing on the Melina again (great value compared to the other charters in Aruba), and I would like to book a day or two with Laurenz (Fly Fishing Aruba) to hopefully catch my first bonefish on a fly (I fish the east coast of the US with a fly rod sometimes and I still consider myself a beginner). We'll also try the Baby Beach area (while we snorkeled there we saw large schools of what I think were nice sized yellowtail snappers) and around Savaneta.

- As for hooking up with locals, can anyone recommend someone to get in contact with who would be willing to share some knowledge, time, or both to help a highly respectful fisherman with some local spots or techniques?

Someone mentioned gear: I highly recommend a St. Croix Triumph 4-piece travel rod (6' 6" medium-fast action) paired with a 2500-3000 size Shimano Stradic or Saros. The rod when broken down in the carrying bag is about 24" in length (same length as most 5-piece fly rods). I strap together two of the St. Croix rods and two fly rods into a nice bundle that I carry on whenever I travel for vacation. This is an excellent general medium-light rig for casting lures and drifiting bait. I've used this type of setup on trips in the Caribbean and the east coast of the US to catch everything from striped bass and flounder to jacks and cuda.

As for where the Spanish Lagoon is located, go to Wikimapia dot com and zoom to the following coordinates: 12.4736209N 69.9753356W (I would put a link in here but I can't since I'm new to the forum).